Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Farmville creator, Zynga, launches 'Empires & Allies' for Facebook

Zynga, the social network game developer behind the massively popular FarmVille is launching a new Facebook game called 'Empires & Allies'.

Empires & Allies - Zynga's latest game.

Hoping to replicate the success of its most popular game, Farmville, Empires & Allies, is the company’s first combat strategy game, which allows players to conquer the world through battles, building and tough negotiations.

Set on a sprawling multi-island game board, Empires & Allies integrates familiar game play elements from popular Zynga titles, such as CityVilleand Mafia Wars. into a story-driven combat crusade. Players aim to build a thriving island-nation by arming themselves against enemy forces and preparing for battle. Throughout the game, players can build army units, recruit friends, and encounter helpful allies and unique villains as fight their way across enemy-held territories on the quest to defeat the final villain.

“Empires & Allies is strategy combat gone social – think CityVille meets Risk,” said Amer Ajami, executive producer of Empires & Allies at Zynga. “We’re focused on bringing our players a new form of entertainment and a strategy game is definitely a new playground for us. Play is in everyone’s DNA, and this game lets you have fun and get creative by choosing your own destiny, building a nation and eventually, conquering the world.”

The global release is the first of its genre for the games company, which is now reportedly worth $5.5billion only four years after founding.

The game will only be available on Facebook and is free to play, but users can also buy Facebook credits to purchase extra features. It makes its debut in 12 languages, including Korean, Norwegian and Malay for the first time.

Thirty-three million people around the world have downloaded FarmVille, Zynga’s most popular game to date, and currently there are 60 million active players.

The social gaming company also makes other games for Facebook such as Mafia Wars, FrontierVille and CaféWorld. Several of its games are also live on MySpace, but it concentrates most of its energies on the Facebook community.